Cuban poet discusses artistic freedom

By Vanessa Knapton, in the Militant,Vol. 59, no. 40. 30 October, 1995

LOS ANGELES - "Despite the increased economic hardships
caused by the U.S. embargo, there is greater artistic
freedom than ever before in Cuba today," Norberto Codina
explained. He was speaking to a group of students who had
turned out to a meeting at the University of California-Los
Angeles (UCLA) to hear the Cuban poet and editor.

Codina, editor of La Gaceta de Cuba, a cultural magazine
published by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba
(UNEAC), spoke at several events in Los Angeles as part of a
four-week lecture tour that began in Washington, D.C., and
continues in Houston and New York. Carlos Ugalde, a
professor at Glendale Community College, and John Shapley,
president of UCLA's Graduate Students Association, gave
introductory remarks at the meeting. Both are part of the
Norberto Codina Lectures Committee, which sponsored his four-city
tour.

Codina noted that in the United States there is a
perception that the Cuban government interferes with
artistic freedom and that artists in Cuba must either be
underground or on the payroll of the government, and that
they have to be members of the Communist Party to travel
abroad.

"This is not true," Codina said. "I myself am not a
member of the Communist Party and though I am an employee of
the government, I am not a docile one." As editor of La
Gaceta, Codina added, "I face no censorship board; I answer
to no censors." In fact, he stated, artists and "art have
never been more audacious, have never been freer in Cuba
than they are today."

About 80 people turned out to hear the Cuban writer
speak at Macondo Cultural Center on the economic and
political conditions artists face in Cuba. The event was
chaired by Paula Solomon, co-chair of the Los Angeles
Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba.

Even with the current economic crisis, exacerbated by
the added restrictions on trade and travel imposed last year
by the Clinton administration, Cuba still has been able to
maintain its most important cultural institutions. It
continues to sponsor numerous cultural
events - international film festivals, the Havana Book Fair,
and international photography exhibits - and provide
scholarships for artists.

This is only possible, Codina underlined, "because of
the generalization of culture and art at all levels of
society." He explained that one of the significant
achievements of the Cuban revolution of 1959 was the
encouragement of artistic and cultural development for
students, workers, and peasants. This began, he said, with
the literacy campaigns of the early 1960s through which
virtually all workers and peasants in Cuba learned to read
and continued with systematic efforts to raise the level of
schooling of the entire population, young and old. These
campaigns opened up academic possibilities for Cubans that
are unparalleled in Latin America and even in much wealthier
countries.

With the creation of art schools all over the country
from primary to high school level, Cubans "fought against
the concept of art only for the elite," Codina emphasized.
It became possible for artists, even for those who were from
working-class or peasant families, to "become professionals
and travel to other countries to show their work."

Many of the current discussions in Cuba on art and
culture are reflected in the pages of La Gaceta. Hotly
debated topics like gays, religion, and the problem of
prostitution in Cuba are all discussed in the magazine.

Cuba is not a dreamland, as some people may want to say,
Codina remarked, but also it is not as bad as some portray
it. "Cuba is not a paradise, and it is not a hell." Cuban
artists are conscious of these realities and they reflect
that in their art.

For example, the recent phenomenon of beggars in Cuba
has been a shock to him as it is to other Cubans, Codina
commented, and he incorporated it into one of his poems.
"Until recently, I had only heard stories about homeless
Cubans in prerevolutionary Cuba. Still, the small number of
beggars in all of Cuba today would pale in comparison to the
beggars in Washington, D.C. alone."

During his one-week visit in this area, the editor of La
Gaceta was sponsored by faculty members at California State
University-Los Angeles, UCLA, and Glendale Community
College. He also spoke at two bookstores, including a
meeting of about 30 at Arroyo Bookstore, which was attended
by a number of people from the largely Mexican community.

Codina met with Mayor William Paparian of Pasadena and
some of his staff. Paparian expressed his strong opposition
to the U.S. embargo of Cuba. He extended an open invitation
to other Cubans to visit the city and expressed interest in
visiting Cuba himself. Also at the meeting were the city
manager and the director of the Pasadena city libraries.

By the end of the week, Cuba solidarity activists had
sold 25 copies of La Gaceta at Codina's meetings. They also
made plans to sytematically contact a number of people who
expressed interest in subscribing to the magazine, which is
distributed in the United States by Pathfinder.

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